Serbia's voters defy U.S. NATO and Hague Tribunal

By John Catalinotto, Workers World, 8 January
2004

In the largest turnout in three years, voters in Serbia's national
elections on Dec. 28 rejected the U.S.-NATO definition of who was good
and who was bad for them. They voted into parliament two party leaders
now behind bars in Scheveningen prison in The Hague facing war-crimes
charges.

An election by itself can only indicate changes in the mood and
consciousness of the population. This one indicated that 36 percent of
the Serbian population would rather vote for an alleged war criminal,
vilified and demonized, than for those who have been giving their
country away to the imperialist monopolies for the past three years.
They cast that vote even though they know it may mean more attacks
from the West.

Voters in Serbia were also rejecting the efforts of NATO's
tribunal at The Hague to blame Serb leaders and Serbia itself for the
10 years of civil war in the Balkans, which in fact were fomented by
the U.S., Germany and other NATO powers.

Vojislav Seselj led the ticket of the Serbian Radical Party (SRP), a
Serb nationalist party and the big electoral winner with 28 percent of
the votes and 81 of 250 seats in parliament. Former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic led the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS)
ticket. With 8 percent of the vote and 22 members seated, it made the
best showing since Milo sevic was driven from office in 2000.

The servile pro-Western, pro-globalization parties that have been
running Serbia into the ground took a big hit, but will probably
remain in office. Four of these parties got enough votes to be in the
parliament, winning a total of 147 seats. These include three major
parties that promote capitalist globalization—the U.S. and
European Union call them “democratic.” They would have to
form a bloc with Vuk Drascovic's monarchist party, which got 23
seats, in order to form a government.

The imperialists are already pressuring these parties to overcome
their differences with each other and unite to keep the Socialists and
Radicals from forming a government. It was imperialist intervention in
2000 that forced these pro-imperialists and 14 other small parties to
unite to defeat Milosevic in the 2000 presidential election. But many
observers say they expect only a very unstable government to emerge,
one that will soon have to call new elections.

Both Milosevic and Seselj are in Scheveningen prison in The Hague,
facing serious war-crimes charges. With this election, both are now in
a position where their parties can choose to give them seats in
Parliament. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) will not allow them to take those seats. Still, they
have shown that being put on trial by this NATO court is actually a
plus for a candidate in Serbia. And that's even though the ICTY
issued a 30- day gag order to stop the two from communicating with
Serbia during the entire election period, going so far as to prevent
Milosevic from seeing his grandson.

Milosevic has won respect back in Serbia by his strong legal and
political self-defense during almost two years of his trial, during
which he showed how the U.S. and NATO powers provoked civil wars and
then attacked Yugo slavia. His own role was to attempt to defend
Yugoslavia, a multinational state.

After the war, he was replaced by governments like the one that just
offered to send Serbia's army to Afghanistan and even Iraq to help
the U.S. occupy those countries. Disagreements between Vojislav
Kostunica's party and the other even more openly pro-imperialist
forces broke up the last government.

In 2000 U.S. agents pressured the 18 anti-Milosevic parties to join
together and run Kostunica for president against Milosevic, as
Kostunica was the only candidate available who wasn’t already
compromised either by corruption or by close entanglements with the
imperialist powers.

Since the ouster of the SPS and the SRP in 2000, Serbia's economy
has been globalized and taken over, mainly by U.S. and German
transnational firms and by local collaborators. The broader federation
of Yugoslavia has been completely dismantled. Unemployment is now at
30 percent with many factories closed, prices have risen much faster
than wages, and Serbia is now considered one of the poorest countries
in Europe.

Whatever government emerges from the bargaining among parties
following this election, the vote has shown that the promise to
integrate Serbia with the imperialist West has steadily lost support
among the population there. The ICTY is completely discredited inside
Serbia and is seen as an imperialist tool.